Spider eats bird

Simon Hampel

Simon Hampel

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Spider eats bird - Local News - Cairns, QLD, Australia

THESE amazing images of a mammoth spider devouring a bird were taken in the backyard of an Atherton property, west of Cairns.

And the images, which are being cirulated via email worldwide, are real, according to wildlife experts.

See all the photos of the spider eating the bird

The photos, believed to have been taken earlier this week, show the spider clenching its legs around a lifeless bird trapped in a web.

Joel Shakespeare, the head spider keeper at NSW's Australian Reptile Park, told ninemsn that the spider was a Golden Orb Weaver.

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I'm going to have nightmares tonight. That is amazing. I have examined the spider and have made a mental note not to taunt one...ever!
 
Those Golden Orb Weavers build such strong webs - we have them all over our back yard here in Sydney - some of them get really large and fat too ... but fortunately not THAT large.

The webs are beautiful - especially when the sunlight catches them and you can see the golden glow ... but those damned spiders are so prolific in building them - especially across footpaths!

You can walk down a path and get a face-full of web, and then an hour later walk down the same path and get another face-full of web again! They rebuild them so quickly. They are strong, so it really is very unpleasant to get them across your face.

I've taken to walking around with my arm in front of my face - especially during summer.
 
That's pretty amazing! There are some orb weaver spiders in the S.D. Zoo bug house, but not as big as that one, I don't think. I'm glad we don't have any that big native to Southern California. Although, it may be good if we did. Easier to see them and all that. We have to worry about the small brown recluse.
 
That is an amazing picture, I saw similiar footage on Nat Geo with a spider eating a finch.
 
I accidentally walked into a Nephila web in Cambodia and ended up with the spider hanging on my face, which wasn't pleasant considering it had a leg-span as wide as my hand!
 
I'm a bit surprised it could kill the bird or perhaps it just died of exhaustion? Nephila's are large but their poison is weak. I was bitten by a big female N. clavipes a few years ago and it hurt less than an ordinary bee sting.
 
condor said:
I'm a bit surprised it could kill the bird or perhaps it just died of exhaustion?
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If you read the rest of the article it does mention that the spider wouldn't have attached the bird until it was already too weak from exhaustion:

Queensland Museum's Greg Czechura is reported ninemsn as saying cases of the Golden Orb Weaver eating small birds were "well known but rare".

"It builds a very strong web," he told ninemsn.

But he said the spider would not have attacked until the bird weakened due to its struggle to free its wings.

"The more they struggle, the more tangled up and exhausted they get and they go into stress."

"If a spider gets a bird, it`s a very lucky spider," Mr Czechura said.
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Chlidonias said:
I accidentally walked into a Nephila web in Cambodia and ended up with the spider hanging on my face, which wasn't pleasant considering it had a leg-span as wide as my hand!
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I'm sure since you were in that close range of it, it must of looked like one of those spiders of eight legged freaks! ;) Well if it happened to me I sure would react to it like that.
 
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